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Patient Safety Day falls on 17 September each year. To mark the day, this year Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies partnered with the Clinical Services Journal to create a thought leader platform forinfection prevention and patient safety experts. As part of our industry’s longstanding commitment to collaborating with stakeholders, the aim was to provide an independent and credible asset that gives the patient safety debate the voice it deserves.

Professor David Leaper, surgeon, lecturer and researcher of infection prevention, discusses the need for infection prevention ‘champions’ and the importance of adherence to guidelines particular given the challenge of antibiotic resistance.

Dawn Stott, CEO for the Association for Perioperative Practice with around 28 years in healthcare, highlights practitioner empowerment as an important driving force alongside raising awareness broadly, including with patients.

What I heard loud and clear in each of the leader interviews was what humanity stands to gain from getting this right, and the heightened definition of value that would result; namely safer, more sustainable healthcare. Value-based healthcare is defined by quality and safety standards that ensure patients have the best opportunity to get better, faster. Improving patient outcomes and experience are two pillars of the ‘triple aim’ meaning patient safety is intrinsically linked to both outcomes and experience, and furthermore to potentially huge cost savings.

Of course, MedTech already delivers value in numerous ways by reducing preventable harm and thus minimizing related healthcare costs.But, until all safety gaps are closed, we must continue to support and enhance best practices. We must always strive to do more to improve patient safety with the physical and figurative tools that we place in the hands of care providers.